Winding Roads
by Entity Sylvir
Summary: It was exactly two years since that day. Seven hundred and thirty days since her lover had walked out of her life without a word of explanation. And now she's back.


This is a little something for my friend MBB's birthday. She is a complete Wicked-obssesed fan while I don't know anything about Wicked or the fandom except for a few of the character's names and basic appearances, so this is AU and set in modern times in America. I apologise for any mistakes which may offend.

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Glinda wrapped her black silk night gown around her body and walked softly toward the balcony. She slid open the glass door and stepped out into the light of the silver crescent moon. She couldn't sleep. It was exactly two years since that day. Seven hundred and thirty days since her lover had walked out of her life without a word of explanation.

Glinda had been away for several days for a work conference. The travelling had been tiresome and the meetings grueling, and she had been looking forward to falling into a pair of loving arm's on her return. However, instead of finding her girlfriend waiting with a hot drink and some sweet cookies, she had been greeted by an empty house. The wardrobes were half empty, only one toothbrush was in the bathroom, the second pillow on the bed, gone. Glinda had searched frantically for any traces of the blissful relationship that was thought to never end. She found none, but neither did she come up empty handed. There was something odd. Objects in places where they would never had been placed, strange things lying around which had definitely not been in the house before. A Hansel and Gretel picture book on the kitchen table, a Vietnam War Recruit pamphlet on the mattress, the pieces of a torn up world map on the foyer stand, and a watch with no hands under the doormat. But there was no note, no goodbye, not a shred of evidence as to why the person sharing her home and anything confirming her existence had vanished into thin air.

Glinda took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air. "I love you. Where did you go?" She whispered into the night, as if the soft breeze would blow the words to their intended ears. She scanned the dark sky, lingering on the few pinpricks of light which always seemed to form the face of the one she had lost. Casting her eyes downwards, she paused. The dim glow of the streetlight seemed to reveal a dark shape, slowly making its way down her garden path. She strained her eyes to peer through the blackness and made out the figure of a person, walking toward her front door. Sure enough, a few minutes later a soft knock was heard from the floor below. Wondering who could possibly be calling on her at this hour, Glinda stepped back into her bedroom and proceeded down the wide, carpeted starcase. The knock sounded again.

"I'm coming!" she called as she hurried to the door, wincing slightly as the cold tiles of the foyer stung her bare feet. She quickly took the key from its hook on the wall and slipped it into the lock. She swung the door open and gasped.

The person before her was painfully skinny and had dark shadows under her eyes. She was also the last person Glinda was expecting, the person she had thought she would never see again.

"Elphaba?"

Elphaba felt the warm drops of salty water fall from her eyelashes as she stood, still in the doorway, with her arms around the one she hadn't seen for two long years. Slowly the two made it inside. Glinda led Elphaba to their old bedroom and let her collapse onto the bed sat while she went back down and brought them both up a cup of hot chocolate. The two lay side by side and neither of them spoke. Finally, after several minutes of silence, Glinda set down her mug.

"I missed you," she breathed, in an almost inaudible voice.

Elphaba sighed and leaned over to rest her head on her chest. "I missed you too."

Glinda wrapped her arm around her lost love. "What happened to you?"

"I've been moving around. Between the cities and towns, and then settled in the country for a while. The trip back was a lot more exhausting than I expected."

Glinda tightened her grip. "I got your message."

"I knew you would," Elphaba replied, smiling softly.

"So, when do you have to leave?"

Elphaba raised her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Glinda reached down with her right hand and opened one of the drawers in her bedside. One by one she pulled out the objects inside. "The Hansel and Gretel picture book: leaving behind a trail of clues. The Vietnam War Recruit pamphlet: that the government found you and was trying to capture you again," she briefly brushed the green flesh of Elphaba's cheek. "The torn up world map: that you didn't know where you where going. And the handless watch at the doorstep: that you weren't coming back."

A single tear dripped down the side of Glinda's face and Elphaba raised her hand to wipe it away. "You kept them?"

Glinda nodded. "Of course, it was all I had to prove that you even existed."

Elphaba laced her fingers with those of her old love. "I'm sorry I had to leave like that, but someone tipped them off about me. They think I'm a freak, they want to make me into a science experiment. You were away, so I just pretended you were living alone, and I couldn't write a note in case they searched the house." A few more tears spilled over Glinda's long lashes. "But you were wrong." Elphaba reached over and took the handless watch. "This didn't mean that I wasn't coming back, it meant that I didn't know how long it would be before I came back."

Glinda turned over abruptly. "Does that mean you'll stay?"

"Well, if you take me back..." Glinda's response was to pull the woman she loved in for a deep kiss, the first of many to come.


End file.
